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Hu J, Chen H, Wang H, Zheng H, Cai W, Xu P. A protocol for measuring the response of Arabidopsis roots to gravity and treatment for simulated microgravity. STAR Protoc 2023; 4:102099. [PMID: 36853717 PMCID: PMC9937981 DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2022] [Revised: 12/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
We present a protocol to quantify the response of both normal and mutant Arabidopsis seedlings to gravity and simulated microgravity under earth-normal gravity conditions. We describe the steps to simulate microgravity using a three-dimensional (3D) clinostat, which changes the rate and direction at random and consistently rotates the axis horizontally and vertically to counteract the standard gravity at the Earth's surface. We then detail the gravity stimulation experiment, followed by the assessment of root responses using ImageJ-based analysis. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Xu et al. (2022).1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinbo Hu
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
| | - Haiying Chen
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Hongxia Wang
- National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Huiqiong Zheng
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Weiming Cai
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
| | - Peipei Xu
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
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Yao Z, Yuan L, Liu K, Wang T, Liu B, Zhao Y, Gan S, Chen L. Warming-induced changes of broccoli head to cauliflower-like curd in Brassica oleracea are regulated by DNA methylation as revealed by methylome and transcriptome co-profiling. MOLECULAR HORTICULTURE 2022; 2:26. [PMID: 37789398 PMCID: PMC10515005 DOI: 10.1186/s43897-022-00047-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Increasingly warming temperature impacts on all aspects of growth and development in plants. Flower development is a complex process that is very sensitive to ambient temperature, and warming temperatures often lead to abnormal flower development and remarkably reduce the quality and yield of inflorescent vegetables and many other crops, which can be exemplified by Brassica oleracea cv. Green Harmony F1, a broccoli cultivar, whose floral development is ceased at inflorescence meristem (at 28 °C) or floral primordium stage (at 22 °C), forming a cauliflower-like curd (28 °C) or intermediate curd (22 °C) instead of normal broccoli head at 16 °C. However, the underlying molecular regulatory mechanisms are not well understood. Here we report that warming temperature (28 °C or 22 °C) induced hypermethylation of the genome, especially the promoter regions of such sets of genes as ribosome biogenesis-related and others, leading to the suppression of the apex-highly-expressed distinctive genes, subsequently resulting in the abnormal floral development, as revealed by methylome and transcriptome co-profiling. The regulation of warming-induced abnormal floral development in broccoli was further verified by the fact that the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) released the expression of genes from the warming temperature-induced suppression, and restored the broccoli development to normalcy at warming temperature. The research provided new approaches to breeding broccoli and other crops for growing in wider or warmer temperature zones. Graphical Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zilei Yao
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Lu Yuan
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Ke Liu
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Tingjin Wang
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Bin Liu
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Yan Zhao
- Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Present address: College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Susheng Gan
- Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
| | - Liping Chen
- Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
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Red Light Enhances Plant Adaptation to Spaceflight and Mars g-Levels. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:life12101484. [PMID: 36294919 PMCID: PMC9605285 DOI: 10.3390/life12101484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding how plants respond and adapt to extraterrestrial conditions is essential for space exploration initiatives. Deleterious effects of the space environment on plant development have been reported, such as the unbalance of cell growth and proliferation in the root meristem, or gene expression reprogramming. However, plants are capable of surviving and completing the seed-to-seed life cycle under microgravity. A key research challenge is to identify environmental cues, such as light, which could compensate the negative effects of microgravity. Understanding the crosstalk between light and gravity sensing in space was the major objective of the NASA-ESA Seedling Growth series of spaceflight experiments (2013–2018). Different g-levels were used, with special attention to micro-g, Mars-g, and Earth-g. In spaceflight seedlings illuminated for 4 days with a white light photoperiod and then photostimulated with red light for 2 days, transcriptomic studies showed, first, that red light partially reverted the gene reprogramming induced by microgravity, and that the combination of microgravity and photoactivation was not recognized by seedlings as stressful. Two mutant lines of the nucleolar protein nucleolin exhibited differential requirements in response to red light photoactivation. This observation opens the way to directed-mutagenesis strategies in crop design to be used in space colonization. Further transcriptomic studies at different g-levels showed elevated plastid and mitochondrial genome expression in microgravity, associated with disturbed nucleus–organelle communication, and the upregulation of genes encoding auxin and cytokinin hormonal pathways. At the Mars g-level, genes of hormone pathways related to stress response were activated, together with some transcription factors specifically related to acclimation, suggesting that seedlings grown in partial-g are able to acclimate by modulating genome expression in routes related to space-environment-associated stress.
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Villacampa A, Fañanás‐Pueyo I, Medina FJ, Ciska M. Root growth direction in simulated microgravity is modulated by a light avoidance mechanism mediated by flavonols. PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM 2022; 174:e13722. [PMID: 35606933 PMCID: PMC9327515 DOI: 10.1111/ppl.13722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2022] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
In a microgravity environment, without any gravitropic signal, plants are not able to define and establish a longitudinal growth axis. Consequently, absorption of water and nutrients by the root and exposure of leaves to sunlight for efficient photosynthesis is hindered. In these conditions, other external cues can be explored to guide the direction of organ growth. Providing a unilateral light source can guide the shoot growth, but prolonged root exposure to light causes a stress response, affecting growth and development, and also affecting the response to other environmental factors. Here, we have investigated how the protection of the root from light exposure, while the shoot is illuminated, influences the direction of root growth in microgravity. We report that the light avoidance mechanism existing in roots guides their growth towards diminishing light and helps establish the proper longitudinal seedling axis in simulated microgravity conditions. This process is regulated by flavonols, as shown in the flavonoid-accumulating mutant transparent testa 3, which shows an increased correction of the root growth direction in microgravity, when the seedling is grown with the root protected from light. This finding may improve the efficiency of water and nutrient sourcing and photosynthesis under microgravity conditions, as they exist in space, contributing to better plant fitness and biomass production in space farming enterprises, necessary for space exploration by humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Villacampa
- Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas – CSICMadridSpain
| | | | - F. Javier Medina
- Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas – CSICMadridSpain
| | - Malgorzata Ciska
- Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas – CSICMadridSpain
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